"Love's Labour's Lost"
Love's Labour's Lost is a 2000 adaptation of the comic play of the same name by William Shakespeare, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh. It was the first feature film to be made of this lesser-known comedy. Branagh's fourth film of a Shakespeare play (he did not direct the 1995 Othello, although he did play Iago), Love's Labour's Lost was a box-office and critical disappointment.[1] Branagh's film turns Love's Labour's Lost into a romantic Hollywood musical. Set and costume design evoke the Europe of 1939; the music (classic Broadway songs of the 1930s) and newsreel-style footage are also chief period details. The cast includes Shakespearean veterans such as Timothy Spall, Richard Briers and Geraldine McEwan, alongside Hollywood actors Alicia Silverstone and Matthew Lillard and Broadway and West End stars such as Nathan Lane. As a result of its poor commercial performance, Miramax shelved its three-picture deal with Branagh, who subsequently returned to Shakespeare with As You Like It in 2006. Plot The King of Navarre has vowed to avoid romantic entanglements to spend three years in study and contemplation. His chief courtiers agree to follow him in this vow, though one (Berowne) argues that they will not be able to fulfil this plan. Berowne's claim is proven correct almost instantly. The Princess of France comes to Navarre to discuss the status of the province of Aquitaine. Though the King does not grant them access to his palace (they are forced to camp outside), each of the courtiers falls in love with one of her handmaidens, and the King falls in love with the Princess herself. The men attempt to hide their own loves and expose those of their fellows. At the end, after a masked ball in which the pairs of lovers are comically mismatched, all the amours are revealed. However, before the expected nuptial consummation, the women demand that the men prove they are serious by waiting for them. The comic underplot, in which Costard and others attempt to stage a play (rather like that of the rude mechanicals in A Midsummer Night's Dream, though with more pretensions to learning) is severely curtailed, as is the boasting of the Spaniard, Don Armado. Cast *Alessandro Nivola as King Ferdinand of Navarre *Alicia Silverstone as The Princess of France *Natascha McElhone as Rosaline *Kenneth Branagh as Berowne *Carmen Ejogo as Maria *Matthew Lillard as Longaville *Adrian Lester as Dumaine *Emily Mortimer as Katherine *Richard Briers as Nathaniel *Geraldine McEwan as Holofernia (a female version of the male Holofernes in the original play) *Stefania Rocca as Jaquenetta *Jimmy Yuill as Dull *Nathan Lane as Costard *Timothy Spall as Don Armado *Tony O'Donnell as Moth *Daniel Hill as Marcade *Richard Clifford as Boyet *Alfred Bell as Gaston *Daisy Gough as Isabelle *Graham Hubbard as Eugene *Paul Moody as Jaques *Yvonne Reilly as Beatrice *Iain Stuart Robertson as Hippolyte *Emma Scott as Celimene *Amy Tez as Sophie Theatrical Traile r Category:2000 films Category:Miramax Films films Category:Rated PG movies Category:Films with opening credits Category:Musical films